Garbage Singer Shirley Manson: "You Must Engineer Your Own Happiness"

Shirley Manson doesn't believe that art is an endeavor of the young. For the singer, who has fronted Garbage since 1993, anyone can–and should–purse their creativity. She came to this realization a few years ago, while visiting a Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Tate Modern in London. "I had never heard of her but I walked into the Tate and there was this incredible exhibition," Manson says, calling from the U.K. where the band is on tour. "At the time, Louise Bourgeois was still alive and I think she was 93. It was like being hit over the head with a baseball bat. I thought, 'My God, this is a 93 year old woman and she's still being creative. She's not having to please anyone but herself.' That's all she's done her entire life and it sparked something in me. It released me from a lot of expectations I thought I had to meet."

"It feels exciting, like 'Oh we still have something to say! We can still be adventurous and still explore.'"

Despite the fact that Manson has been writing and touring in Garbage for decades, it's only been recently in her career that she's accepted herself as a serious artist. That shift is evidenced in the band's recent work, both their 2012 effort Not Your Kind of People, which brought the musicians back together after a lengthy hiatus, and their new album Strange Little Birds, which just debuted at #1 on both Billboard's Rock and Alternative charts. From the outside, Manson has watched herself change–and for the better.

"I feel like I'm a completely different person now, to be honest," she says. "When I first started out in Garbage I didn't even really think of myself as an artist. I thought of myself as just a lucky bugger who had stumbled into an incredible gig. In some regards, I think that mentality was good for me because it really kept my feet on the ground in a time when we were really in demand globally and had a lot of pressures and a lot of success. So on one hand I'm grateful for that mentality, but on the other hand it was incredibly destructive for me as a creative person."

"We're living in a time when everybody thinks everything is a youthful endeavor," she adds. "I do think there's a certain burst of creativity that comes out of young people that once you're past a certain age you cannot possibly emulate. But I also believe that as you get older you get other tools at your disposal that you can use to make interesting work that young people in turn cannot replicate because they don't have the experience, the perspective, the knowledge. Everyone in the world, no matter who you are, has an interesting voice."

On Strange Little Birds, which dropped in early June and will keep the band on the road through the rest of the year, Manson wanted to be open to new ideas and new methods of songwriting. She had an idea of the lyrical notes she wanted to hit and a sense of the musical atmosphere she was interested in, but overall the band wanted to stay as fluid as possible in their approach. In that way, they can still find the ability to be surprised.

"No prince on a white horse is going to come in and fix my life. I have to fix it for myself."

"One of the reasons that we have continued to be successful is that we push and we continue to be students of music," Manson explains. "We're always striving to do better than our last effort and we're always looking to expand ourselves, for better or for worse. Sometimes when you push you push in the wrong direction and you make mistakes, but I think we're willing to accept that we will not always be right. In making Strange Little Birds we realized that we had stumbled upon a new sonic landscape, for us and for ourselves. It feels exciting, like 'Oh we still have something to say! We can still be adventurous and still explore.'" She pauses, then adds, "I think that's the best way to live your life. Too many times as people we tend to go 'Well, I'm now 40 and I'm old and I need to stop and I need to settle.' I just don't agree with that philosophy. It doesn't matter how old you are–you can still be an adventurer and an explorer in the world."

Age is something Manson refers to again and again throughout the conversation. Not because she seems concerned with growing up, but because it's changed her perspective. She was 43 when her mother died and that was a seminal moment in Manson's life, both personally and creatively. It changed the way the singer saw the world and affected how she wanted to move through it, encouraging her to be a positive role model for her sister's kids, especially as they grow into teenagers. For Manson, it all goes back to finding your own power, which is something most people can't discover until they are older.

"My mom's focus tended to be on where she was going," Manson recounts. "She was always kind of bustling through life and she would always say to me 'You must engineer your own happiness. It's down to you.' That's one of the most important things I've ever learned. There's nobody going to come in. No prince on a white horse is going to come in and fix my life. I have to fix it for myself."

"None of us as human beings feel that we're powerful and as I've gotten older I've realized all humans have great power in them."

Although Manson is quick to state that she doesn't "really think of myself as someone who is influential in a grand sense," she is aware that grasping her personal power can help those who are inspired by her. She describes herself as very passionate and notes that her current interest is feminism and how she can help other women find their voice and strength.

"More and more I'm aware that, now that I am older and I'm in a different phase in my life and in my career, I can use my voice to make things better for women who are coming up behind me," she says. "I can light their way. I want things to be better for women because I love my fellow women and I'm very aware of a lot of disadvantages we all have as a sex in essentially a patriarchal system. I demand equality when I'm working with my fellow compatriots who happen to be male. Every now and again when we encounter old school sexism I deal with it. And I'm not afraid to make a scene about it. I'm certainly not going to swallow it down just to keep the peace. When I encounter it, when I see it I stand up against it and I keep squeezing until the blood pours out."

Manson is certainly not someone who is known for remaining silent on an issue. She uses social media to speak up about things that concern her, including how she believes Kim Kardashian is a negative influence on young women. She confines many of her thoughts to her personal Facebook pages, but also often uses Garbage's Twitter feed to share.

"We have a lot of beliefs in common in Garbage," she says. "We share a very similar approach to life and our politics are relatively similar. If there's ever a strong message you can be 100 percent the rest of the band has my back."

One thing Manson won't discuss specifically is her political beliefs, including whether she'll vote for the U.K. to exit the E.U. this week in the countrywide vote. Manson, who remains a Scottish citizen, isn't allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential election (although she proclaims "I wish I could!" with great enthusiasm). She encourages her fans to vote, but doesn't want to influence their personal decision. Either way, however, Manson and the rest of Garbage as seeing how impactful current politics are as they tour around the world.

"We're getting more and more outraged and more and more panicked," she says. "Everybody is asking us, 'What's going on here? What's going on there?' Traveling musicians are in a really interesting position in that we flit from country to country and we belong to no land really."

"This is something I think America has been very slow to grasp: With the revolution of technology we are now a global community in a way America has never really had to engage in."

As for Trump versus Clinton? "Regardless of how we are all feeling about it it's going to have massive ramifications on the rest of the world," the singer says. "You see the panic in people's faces all over the world asking us. They ask us, 'Do you really think such and such is going to happen?' And they're worried sick. It affects everybody. This is something I think America has been very slow to grasp: With the revolution of technology we are now a global community in a way America has never really had to engage in. America has isolationist politics and because of the Internet now that is an absolute impossibility to maintain that perspective."

It all goes back to Manson's ideas about power and how every person has to find theirs inside themselves. It's another thing she's learned over the years. A vote or an interest in current events or an action against sexism is part of knowing you have the strength to make a difference.

"None of us as human beings feel that we're powerful and as I've gotten older I've realized all humans have great power in them," Manson says. "It's just whether they have the ability to see it in themselves and recognize it in themselves and have confidence in it. It's there in everybody. Once you realize that you're aware you can change your life. If you really want to, if you're really sick enough of the situation you find yourself in, you can dig yourself out of any ditch. I really believe that."

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